An Album with a happy sound. Bluesy oriented songs by Cannonball's Quintet.

Rhythm section:

Sam Jones Bass

Ronnie Matthews Piano

Louis Hayes Drums

INTRODUCTION

This book and record set documents some of the repertoire of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet/Sextet when the group was first tasting success, from 1959 to 1962. The personnel remained stable during that period except for the piano chair; later a tenor saxophonist (Yusef Lateef, later Charles Lloyd) was added. Cannonball and brother Nat, on alto sax and cornet respectively, constituted the front line, with Sam Jones, bass, and Louis Hayes, drums, supplying the rhythm. Victor Feldman, Bobby Timmons, Barry Harris and Joe Zawinul were among the group 5 pianists. Cannonball himself was not a prolific composer, so the various members of the group contributed to the book.

Work Song, a minor key cooker built on two 16 bar phrases, was written by Nat Adderley. Del Sasser is a 32 bar song in standard AABA form written by Sam Jones. Joe Zawinul contributed Scotch and Water during his stay with the band - it's a 12 bar blues with an 8 bar bridge. Saudade, the only tune on the album to date from a later period in Cannonball's career, was written by bassist Walter Booker. This tune is also known as Book's Bossa. Unit Seven (also called Cannon! 5 Theme) is another Sam Jones tune - a 12 bar blues with an 8 bar bridge, in AABA form. Note the chromatic alteration in the 9th bar. Sack of Woe is Cannonball's own composition, a blues with alternating rock and jazz rhythms. Superstition Blues, a jazz waltz, is a Jamey Aebersold tribute to Bobby Timmons. And Duke Pearson's Jeannine is a modally flavored 32 bar AABA form.

The common denominator that the songs have is their deceptively simple changes and structures. Three blues, but the variety even within these shows how fresh a blues can be, and why the blues form is still with us after decades of use. The other tunes retain the blues feeling, if not the literal form. Per haps Cannonball's greatest contribution to jazz was his ability to pick material that would communicate on the gut level with plenty of earthy feeling, yet be fresh enough to challenge the intellect of the musicians in his band as well as his listeners.

Cannonball later went on to great commercial success with such hits as Mercy Mercy Mercy and Walk Tall, but it is the tunes on this record that have become part of the jazz standard repertoire.

Phil Bailey - 1978